S&P: GE Capital Sukuk $500m trust certificates assigned AA+ rating 

(MENAFN Press) Standard & Poor's Ratings Services said today that it assigned its 'AA' issue-level rating on the 500 million sukuk (trust certificates) issued by GE Capital Sukuk Ltd., a limited liability exempted company incorporated under the laws of Bermuda.

The rating is based on the final sukuk documentation dated Nov. 27, 2009. The sukuk assets consist primarily of ownership interests in aircraft assets and rights under the lease agreements entered into regarding these assets. GE Capital Sukuk has used 90% of the sukuk proceeds to enter into a purchase agreement with various subsidiaries of General Electric Capital Corp. (GECC; AA/Stable/A-1) for their beneficial interests in aircraft assets. The issuer holds beneficial interests in the pool of aircraft assets on behalf of the sukuk holders. The issuer has paid the remaining proceeds to Sukuk Aviation Leasing Inc. (SAL), a fully owned subsidiary of GECC, which will hold them in a funded reserve account through deferred-payment commodity "murabaha" (buy-and-sell) transactions.

SAL is the servicing agent. GECC guarantees all obligations of SAL, including the servicing agency agreement, each murabaha contract, the purchase undertaking, the purchase substitution undertaking, the insurance undertaking, and the declaration of trust, each entered into in connection with the trust certificates. The guarantee is unconditional, irrevocable, pari passu in rank with GECC's other senior unsecured obligations. This guarantee, together with other credit enhancement mechanisms provided with regard to the periodic distribution on the sukuk, underpin our equalization of the 'AA' rating on the sukuk with our long-term counterparty credit rating on GECC.